Bright Horizons Back-Up Care - Provider FAQs

A. Bright Horizons has always provided emergency back-up care via their Compass booking system. However, a few years ago Bright Horizons acquired another childcare company called My Family Care, MFC also provided emergency childcare but via a different booking system called Elysium.

We are working towards one combined system called Compass 2.0 where we plan to incorporate the best features from both. As you can imagine this type of development work takes time, and we want to make sure we have a fantastic system before we launch. For the time being, as each system has a different pool of clients we will continue to run both side by side. We allow our providers access to both systems to maximise the revenue opportunities to the providers on our network.

A. The migration of clients started in April 2024 and will take approximately a year to complete, as clients are being moved across to Compass on their contract renewal date. Once this has been completed, Elysium will be sunset. As the months go past you will start to see a shift in the demand moving across to Compass as the clients migrate.

If you are not already on Compass, the team will be reaching out to have you set up soon or alternatively you can complete this form now to speed up the process.

A. All bookings will have a reference attached and dedicated booking team that look after them, see table below for details. A booking reference can cover either an individual day of care or multiple days of care depending on how many days an employee decides to book at that moment in time.

A.

• If you have a query about your Compass booking, please contact our Compass Booking Team on 0800 247 1101.
• If you have a query about your Elysium booking, please contact our Elysium Booking Team on 0345 241 5308.
• If you have a query about Elysium provider payments, please email BUCProviderPaymentQueries@brighthorizons.com
• If you have a query about Compass provider payments, please email BUCProviderPaymentQueries@brighthorizons.com
• If you have a query about your Compass or Elysium account, please email BUCProviderEnquiries@brighthorizons.com

A. We have a dedicated Network Growth team to support providers with joining our network. The team will reach out to you to complete a few simple checks. These include (where applicable) regulatory body checks (i.e. Ofsted/Care Inspectorate/CQC rating), review of insurance documents, ICO registration and food hygiene certificate. As well as discussing your opening hours, rates, our booking process and our cancellation terms to see if it’s a good fit for both parties. If you pass these checks, you will be sent a copy of our provider agreement to sign (one for each system) and a link to register on our Elysium system.

Once you’ve completed the registration form you will be sent an email to create a login to your head office admin account on our Elysium system. Here you can amend your details at any time, view any confirmed/complete bookings and add any individual sites/Nannies (if applicable)

Once you’ve registered, the team will review your profile to ensure it has been completed correctly and activate you, you will then be live on Elysium for employees to start requesting care with you. The team then use your Elysium account to mirror and create your Compass account. This can take up to 2 weeks to complete and you will be notified once your live.

A. You can log into Elysium via this link, access your profile and update your details.

For the Compass system you will need to email BUCProviderEnquiries@brighthorizons.com with the details, and we will update these for you.

A. If an employee cancels before 5pm two working days before the date of care, then no payment will be made to you.

If an employee cancels after 5pm two working days before the date of care, then:

• For Nurseries/Holiday Camps/Childminders - a payment of half of the day rate or the half day rate (if there is one in the system) will be payable to you.
• For Nanny/Adult Care Agencies – A payment of 4hrs will be payable to you, unless the care is cancelled within one hour of the start time on Compass, in which case we will pay the full hours of care. If care is cancelled on the day of the booking for Elysium, we will pay the full hours of care.

The provider will always receive an update email, notifying them of the cancellation.  For Compass bookings this will be sent via Mimecast Secure Messaging. For Elysium this will be via your usual email address.

We will notify You of any reservation, cancellation or other change to a reservation. You agree not to accept any requests for reservations, changes or cancellations directly from any Employee and will inform the Employee that they must contact Us directly; You agree and acknowledge that in no event will We be responsible for any agreements made directly between You and an Employee.

A. Any queries regarding payment should be sent to BUCProviderPaymentQueries@brighthorizons.com

A. Depending on the care type and system there are different options, please see the guide below and if you have any questions, please contact BUCProviderPaymentQueries@brighthorizons.com

*Holiday camps & Nurseries are automatically set up on autopay for Compass, unless you specifically ask not to. If you would prefer to manually invoice, please let the team know during the registration stage.

A. Elysium Autopay

Payments will be made by the 10th working day of the month following the month in which care was provided. For example, care provided in March will be paid by the 10th working day of April.

Compass Autopay

Auto Pay for new setups

We do an Autopay set up run once a month around the 15^th. Any new providers that have joined Compass between the last set up run and this one (15^th of previous month to 15^th of this month) will be included in the set-up report, our finance team will then set up the providers autopay profiles in the system ready for the 1^st of the next month to start receiving payment by 1^st of the month following month. (Example table of dates below)

Due to the timings of the initial autopay set up, if providers wish to manually invoice for the first month to receive payment quicker, they are welcome to do so. Please follow the instructions in the following Q&A to find out how to complete a manual invoice and where to send it. Once autopay is set up there is no need to complete any further manual invoices.

Ongoing Auto Pay Timings

We automatically generate an invoice on the first day of each calendar month, for the services provided in the preceding calendar month - We pay each invoice within 30 days of its generation.

You will also receive a spread sheet via Mimecast Secure Messaging detailing all care details from the previous month by the 15th of the current month, so if there are any errors, you can inform us before the payment is made.

N.B It is the responsibility of our Providers to reconcile the report they receive against their books. They will receive this by the 15^th of the month prior to the payment being made on 1^st of the following month. If for any reason you notice any discrepancies when reconciling the report, please notify us within 5 working days to provider.billinguk@brighthorizons.com

As mentioned above, depending on when, within the month, you are initially set up for Autopay, you may miss the monthly cut off for the first payment, the payment the following month will include this unless you choose to manually invoice during the first month to receive the payment quicker.

A. Your invoice must include the following information:

• 1. Name of site/agency
  2. Back-Up Care booking reservation number
  3. Your own Invoice number – As this is quoted on your remittance advice to enable you to match your payments to your invoices
  4. Date(s) care was provided (each as a separate line item)
  5. Number of dependants/care recipients
  6. Hours of care per day
  7. Contracted daily/hourly rate
  8. Total amount due
  9. Comments specific to the booking if relevant for processing the invoice (if applicable)

All manual bookings should be billed to the following:

Bright Horizons Family Solutions Ltd

Pioneer House

7 Rushmills

Northampton

NN4 7YB

Alongside this billing address, please ensure the below references are correct in your system for us:

VAT Number: GB905162449

Company Registration Number: 2328679

All invoices must be payable by Bright Horizons Family Solutions Ltd. Any invoices billed to alternative names (included but not limited to: My Family Care Ltd) will be rejected for payment.

If you have any questions about the above, please contact:

BUCProviderPaymentQueries@brighthorizons.com

Important Billing Policies:

• Invoices/hours should not be submitted/processed until after care has been delivered
• Invoices/hours must be submitted/processed within 45 days of care being provided
• Payment will be sent within 30 working days from the date of receipt of your invoice/hours being processed.

Payments will be declined for any invoices received more than 45 days after care has taken place

• Please forward your completed manual invoice for any CAS / 00 related bookings to billinguk@brighthorizons.com

• Please forward your completed manual invoice for any NAN / BAE related bookings to BUCProviderPaymentQueries@brighthorizons.com

Please note: Manual invoices are subject to ‘Invoice Adjustments’ if the invoice provided does not contain all the information detailed in the section above. It is your responsibility to correct this and return the invoice back to provider.billinguk@brighthorizons.com within the billing timeframe.

Nanny agencies please note - your hourly bill rate is for up to 3 care recipients, you will be paid for the hours the nanny completed that day, not per care recipient.

A. You will receive a confirmation email with the booking information when care is confirmed. Included in this email is the booking reference and associated dates of care. If you cannot locate this information, please contact the provider relations team for support BUCProviderBillingQueries@brighthorizons.com

A. We ask all providers to complete a registration set up form upon joining the network, included in this is a section to complete with your bank details. This is what we will use to set up your accounting profile which determines where your payments are sent. If your bank details change or you are not sure if we have the correct details, then please contact the provider relations team BUCProviderEnquiries@brighthorizons.com with the correct details so your accounting profile can be updated.

Please note, we do not cross reference the bank details on the invoice with your accounting profile on our system, so simply updating the details on the invoice is not sufficient, you must notify the team using the email above.

A. For Elysium, the remittance is sent out to the billing email address we have recorded on your accounting profile (supplied by you at the point of registration) from a brighthorizons@myworkday.com email address. If we do not have an email address, then no remittance is sent.

For Compass, the email will be sent via Mimecast (our secure messaging portal). To learn about how to access Mimecast see the question below. Once you receive the email and click the attachment, you will be asked if you would like to open the attachment or save to your computer. To view the information, you will need to click open.

And select either Adobe, Internet Explorer or Microsoft Edge to be able to view the remittance.

This is an example for a Multiple setting provider remittance

This is an example for a Single setting provider remittance

A. Mimecast is a secure messaging portal used to deliver important emails to you in relation to our Compass booking system, such as emails informing you of booking requests, confirmations, cancellations and anything billing related. Mimecast is used to protect both our, yours and our customers data. Whenever you are sent an email from us via Mimecast you will receive an email to your usual inbox that looks like the below containing a URL link to log into Secure Messaging as follows:

If you are a first-time user please click on create a password ensuring the password meets the system’s password requirements, and click Confirm. Then log in using your email address and new password.

If you have accessed the portal previously, please enter the email address the Mimecast URL was sent to, click next then enter your Secure Messaging Portal password. If you cannot remember your password or are having trouble logging in, please enter the email address the URL was sent to then use the forgotten password option to reset your login.

Once you have accessed the Secure Messaging Portal, it should look like an inbox and you will be able to view any messages we have sent you.

A. We pay our Nanny agencies a set fee rate per hour of care provided, the rate is different depending on if it is an app booking or off app booking. These rates are discussed and agreed with you before joining the network. When and what you choose to pay your Nannies is entirely your decision and responsibility.

Elysium bookings are on an autopay system, this means providing the Nanny or agency have processed (confirmed the hours on) a booking, it will automatically pull through to be paid within 30 days from the date it was processed. (For information on how to process a booking see the question below).

For Compass bookings you will need to invoice Bright Horizons for the care provided. You will need to wait until all days of care under the booking reference have been completed before you can invoice for it but other than that you can send through invoices as frequently as you would like, some providers choose to do this after every completed booking, others decide to complete fortnightly invoicing and do lots of bookings at once. The choice is yours but please note that bookings are paid 30 days from the date the billing team receive your invoice (not 30 days from when care is complete). All Compass invoices must be sent through to provider.billinguk@brighthorizons.com

For a reminder of what your invoice needs to include click here.

A. Elysium: Once the care has taken place, the Nanny confirms the hours they have completed on the app.

The booking status changes to processed and will automatically pull through to the billing team to be paid.

For off app bookings, you would need to log into the Elysium Provider Portal and manually process the booking. Before confirming, please ensure the hours are correct. If the booking requires any changes, please contact BUCProviderEnquiries@brighthorizons.com

Step by step

• Log into the Elysium Provider Portal
• Click on the menu in the bottom left-hand corner and click on ‘bookings’
• Enter the booking reference in the search bar to find the correct booking and open the booking.
• Scroll to the bottom of the booking page.
• Ensure the ‘Process Booking’ tab is open, tick ‘Manually mark this booking as processed?’

A. Elysium – For bookings that start with BAE- invoices need to be sent to BUCProviderPaymentQueries@brighthorizons.com

Compass – For bookings starting with CAS or 00 invoices need to be sent to provider.billinguk@brighthorizons.com

Please note that bookings are paid 30 days from the date the billing team receive your invoice.

Click here to see what the invoice must include.

A. Elysium

App: The algorithm in our app will send the booking to the 20 nearest best matched Nannies who meet the criteria. The algorithm matches the booking to Nannies based on the Nannies' distance, availability, childcare experience and allergies/preferences among other things. Every 2 minutes afterwards the booking request is sent out to the next 20 most suitable Nannies and so on, until the booking is accepted by a Nanny.

The Nannies will receive a notification on their app of the new booking request, it will include basic information they need to determine if they have availability and if it is a good match for them. The bookings work on a first come first serve basis, so the Nannies must be quick to accept the bookings they want.

When a Nanny has accepted a booking, the full details then appear on their app under ‘ongoing.’

The family receive a text alert and email confirming the booking and including details of the Nanny.

The Nanny’s agency will also receive an email informing them of the confirmed booking.

Off-App: Booking requests are always sent to the app first, they only become off app bookings if they have not been filled on the app during the time set or if the care recipient has complex medical conditions or special needs.

All off-app bookings will automatically be sent to all eligible agencies that cover the postcode area. When a request is sent off-app, all eligible agencies will receive an email with the booking details and a link to book their Nanny on.

They can either select their Nanny from a drop-down list, if the Nanny is already registered on the system or they can use the Nanny credential form to add a brand-new Nanny (this Nanny will then be saved on the system for future bookings).

The booking link the agencies are sent for off app bookings is a ‘live’ link. The form will show the total number of agencies who have opened the link and are reviewing the request. When a Nanny is assigned and the form is submitted, a thank you page will be shown. For the same booking, other agencies which are viewing/completing the form, will be notified with a pop-up indicating that the booking request has been confirmed by another agency and is no longer available.

An example screenshot of the off-app live booking link

A credentials email is sent to the parent with the Nanny’s details and confirming the booking.

A confirmation email is automatically sent to the agency, along with a separate email titled ‘Information to Send to Your Nanny - Ref: [Booking Reference].’ This second email should be forwarded to the Nanny, as it contains booking details. Even if the Nanny is registered on our Nanny app, the booking will not appear on their app so it’s very important this email is forwarded to them.

Overnight Rule

At 7pm, all bookings that are currently on the app, will remain there and all off-app bookings will move to the app (except for the bookings with Special Needs requests). You will still be able to fill the booking request via the off-app live link.

This will also apply for weekends and bank holidays. At 7pm the night before a weekend/bank holiday starts, the bookings will move to the app and remain there until 7am the next working day morning.

At 7am the next working day, the bookings which were sent to the app will no longer be available to app Nannies and move off app for the agencies to manually staff via the live link. Unless the app booking is still within the normal app timing rules, in which case it would remain on the app for the rest of the specified period.

If multiple bookings are being sent to a Nanny when the overnight rule starts at 7pm, only one notification will be sent. When the Nanny clicks on the notification, it will open one of the bookings sent to them. In the ‘requests’ tab, all other requests will be available.

Compass

Any new bookings appear under ‘Available Reservations' in the portal. You have the decision whether to ‘Staff Now’ and confirm the booking request or to mark it as ‘Not Interested’ which will remove the booking request from your portal and send it to another agency. 

Once you have selected your Nanny from the dropdown list and selected 'Staff Now,’ the booking will be confirmed and will move in the portal to ‘Scheduled Reservations.’ 

You will receive an authorisation email confirming the care is booked. This email includes all the details the Nanny will need for the booking, please forward this email onto your Nanny. 

The same information can be found when you open the booking under ‘Scheduled Reservations’ in the portal. 

A. Elysium

Log into your profile via the portal link.

At the bottom right, select the three lines and select Nannies.

Please then select new Nanny and add all your Nanny details.

Please note you can opt for them to be an app Nanny on a non app Nanny. App Nannies must have a photo uploaded. This needs to be a headshot photo (must be a photo of them on their own, no group photos or photos with children in). It does not need to be a ‘professional’ photo, but they do need to look professional, friendly, and approachable. This is the image that employees see when they are choosing their care giver.

Nanny Profile

This must be written in the first person (from the Nanny’s point of view). It is a chance for the Nanny to sell themselves to the family and to reassure them that they are a suitable Nanny for their child/ren. The profile should cover how many years’ experience they have, which age groups they’ve worked with, what types of settings they have worked in (Nanny, nursery, schools, childminder etc.), what type of person they are, any activities they enjoy doing with the children (arts & crafts, baking etc.) If they have any additional skills or interests (speaks French, enjoys playing football, teaches dance etc.)

DBS checks

Nannies can have either a DBS on the update service or a traditional DBS, but both must be checked in the last 12 months.

If they have clicked yes to having joined the update service then please check that the ‘DBS status last checked’ date box is within the last 12 months, ideally in the last 3 months for a new Nanny.

If they have clicked ‘yes – NOT joined the update service’ then the expiry date should be a year exactly from the issue date and that expiry date should then be in date still, (the issue date should not be older than 12 months).

First aid & Employment checks

Nannies must have a valid paediatric first aid, please check the date has not expired. We prefer 12 hours but accept 6 hours. This must be face to face training and not online.

As the agency it is your responsibility to complete the employment checks. Please tick the boxes to confirm you have done all these mandatory checks. All checks must be complete apart from reference 3 this isn’t mandatory if the relevant dates are covered by the first 2 references.

If you are creating a Nanny profile, but do not have all the details, you can select quick save. This will save what you have completed so far. Once all has been completed you can select ‘submit to MFC’. Once we review the profile, if all is correct, we will then make this Nanny active for you. You will be updated by email regarding this.

Compass

To add 1 caregiver at a time: Go to the ‘Caregiver’s’ tab on your provider portal, this will then show you a list of all active caregivers. Select the icon in the top right corner that says, ‘Add a Caregiver.’

Once in the add caregiver field, complete all the Nanny’s required information on the opening page:

• Name.
• First Aid trained.
• DBS date (if on renewal service, enter the last date this was checked).
• Smoker.

Once these are completed, move down, and complete the Nannies qualifications (if your Nanny has a qualification please select ‘Nanny’ from the drop-down box and add a description of the qualification in the ‘description’ box), training and personal attributes.

The assessment field is required but we no longer complete these. To get passed this please select a date at random and put the mark as 100 to pass this section. All required fields with have a * icon next to them, although the more information available for families the better.

You can add multiple caregivers to the system at once, you can do this by selecting ‘Add a Caregiver’ once this opens you should see ‘Add Multiple Caregivers.’ Select this, the system will link you to an Excel sheet which will allow you to add multiple caregivers. Once the Excel sheet is complete, you can upload this by going to ‘Add Multiple Caregivers’ and uploading the document via ‘Upload Caregiver File.’

You can update individual profiles to add more information if required once these have been uploaded.

A. As Nanny agencies are not regulated like other care types, we complete an onboarding audit of every new agency that joins us, as well as an annual review audit and spot checking of Nanny files. This helps to safeguard our client families and maintain quality on our network. See below a summary of our criteria.

Onboarding required information.

We also spot check 3 Nannies within the agency using the following criteria:

A. For centre-based providers, once a booking is submitted, an email will be sent to all eligible providers. An option to ‘Accept’ or ‘Decline’ will be on available on this email. Providers can choose which response best suits them depending on availability etc.

Compass - Instant Book

On Compass, we also have the option for Nurseries & Holiday Camps to utilise our Instant Book Provider Portal. The Provider Portal allows you to update spaces within your location without the need to email us.

There are lots of benefits including:

• Instant Book – employees can book Back-Up care days instantly via their employee portal and confirm the booking immediately.
• More independence – there is no longer a need to email Provider or Contact Centre teams to make updates to your spaces or availability, and fewer phone calls from our Contact Centre
• Priority – you would be at the top of our provider list when employees are looking for care in your area, so this is a great way to boost your bookings and attract new families.
• Saves time – no need to wait for emails to be returned or the call centre to confirm that changes were made
• Real-time updates – updates to the portal can be made last minute and will be updated in the Bright Horizons Back-Up care system immediately!

Follow this link to read about Instant Book.

A. If your rates for providing care have changed, you will need to contact us on BUCProviderPaymentQueries@brighthorizons.com. Your new rates must be approved by Bright Horizons before care at the new rate can commence. If you submit an invoice with a new rate without first gaining approval, the invoice will be rejected.

All fee increases must be submitted at least 4 weeks prior to the effective date.

For auditing purposes, we require a fee sheet to be submitted alongside the rate increase notice. This should be sent as a Word or PDF attachment and provide full details of all locations to be updated if the increase applies to more than one setting.

All rate increases are subject to review and providers may have no more than one rate increase per calendar/financial year.

A. Elysium Providers

You can access your account via this link. Select (Head Office) enter your Username and Password.

You can update your account details, add new sites/settings, update open dates/times, view your bookings and invoices by selecting the required tabs.

Compass Providers

The Compass platform is internally operated, therefore all account updates or amendments must be emailed to BUCProvidersEnquiries@brighthorizons.com where the Provider Relations Team will action accordingly. Unless you looking to update instant book availability which you can do yourself via the Instant Book Provider Portal.

A. For both Compass and Elysium you will be emailed the booking request and/or called by the Contact Centre team. You can then confirm or decline the booking depending on if you have a carer available who fits the requirements of the request. All care recipients will need to have a care assessment in place before care can begin so, please factor this in when confirming if you can support with the booking.

For Compass, your emails will come via Mimecast Secure Messaging platform. We also have the option of a booking portal to manage your Compass bookings. If we set you up with a portal, instead of the Contact Centre calling or emailing you will receive a notification via your Mimecast account notifying you of a new booking request. You can then open this within your portal to see full details and staff it there.